When an American President embarked on a religious crusade, pledging the nation to a with-us-or-against-us perpetual war between Good and Evil, at whatever the costs in lives, resources, and international relations, the terrorists won.

When the US Congress gave up its constitutional powers and responsibilities to decide when, where, and why the nation goes to war, the terrorists won.

When the American people, sick with pain and fear from the abominations of September 2001, allowed the drumbeats of vengeance and retaliatory violence to drown out concern for the innocent people of already long-suffering third-world nations, the terrorists won.

When two hundred years of concern for personal liberties and civil rights were overridden by the paranoia-laced, State-intruding, Orwellian-named Patriot Act, the terrorists won.

When a great democracy cast aside long-established laws, shrugged off its commitment to fair jurisprudence, rounded up hundreds of suspected terrorists, and held them for years without being charged with any crimes, given access to legal council, or allowed to communicate with family members, the terrorists won.

When an American President and Secretary of State went before the gathered leaders of the United Nations and presented a blatantly misleading casus belli to justify the preemptive invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation, the terrorists won.

When leaders of the democratic nations of Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and Australia ignored the will of their people, as well as the collective voice of millions who marched world-wide against the invasion, the terrorists won.

When anti-war protestors were corralled into out-of-sight "free speech zones"; when all forms of dissent were branded as cowardice and treason; when media professionals lost their jobs for speaking and reporting unpolitic truth; when the nation's economy and a long list of domestic priorities were sacrificed to the foolishness of perpetual war; when the democratic impulses of our European allies were branded as appeasement....

Michael Sky, writer, editor, and peace activist, writes at Thinking Peace and is a co-editor at P!. He is the author of "Breathing" and "The Power of Emotion", two books that offer practical, proven methods for becoming more peaceful individuals.

"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.

"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."